Toaru Hikuushi e no Tsuioku

That was mostly predictable, but mostly in a good way. Mostly. Toaru Hikuushi e no Koiuta could be a poster child for any number of phrases: a mixed bag. Scratching the surface. Leaving a lot on the table. In sum, there’s an awful lot that can be picked apart with […] Read more

It’s not every anime that reaches the end before it reaches the end. I confess I thought going in that this was the final episode of Toaru Hikuushi e no Koiuta, so it was rather a surprise to discover it was coming back next week. That certainly helps, given that […] Read more

As confessions go, that was certainly emphatic. I think I’ve figured out why Toaru Hikuushi e no Koiuta often seems to work better as a series than it “deserves” to – why all the exasperating logic holes and sexism and overzealous foreshadowing can’t quite sink the dreadnought. Inside this deeply […] Read more

War is hell, for sure – but that sure as hell wasn’t war. It was a massacre. For the second week in a row Toaru Hikuushi e no Koiuta presents us with an episode that far exceeds in execution what it offers in conception. The head-heart divide is very much […] Read more

“The Princess and the Pilot” It occurs to me that I may be guilty of selling Madhouse short as a studio – and I may not be the only one. I almost never think of them as one of the very top tier of animation studios, but they produce an […] Read more